This new research investigates socio-political and ethnic-cultural conflicts over wage-gaps in Israel during the 1950s. The Academic Middle-Class Rebellion exposes the struggle of the Ashkenazi (European) professional elite to capitalize on its advantages during the first decade of Israeli statehood, by attempting to maximize wage-gaps between themselves and the new oriental Jewish proletariat. This struggle was met with great resistance from the government under the ruling party, MAPAI, and its leader David Ben-Gurion. The clash between the two sides revealed diverse, contradictory visions of the optimal socio-economic foundation for establishing collective identity in the new nation-state. The study by Avi Bareli and Uri Cohen uncovers patterns that merged nationalism and socialism in 1950s Israel, confronting a liberal and meritocratic vision.